Lettuce Gazpacho with Crab Doughnuts

Cook Time 1 hour plus resting

Servings 4

Ingredients

Lettuce Gazpacho (makes about 800 ml)

120g fennel

½ avocado

50g shallots, Peeled 

180g cucumber, skin on 

120g green capsicum 

50g spinach

24g white wine vinegar 

½ clove garlic

10g basil (a few sprigs)

5g mint (a few sprigs)

130g Romaine lettuce 

150g water

1 tsp sea salt

150g Greek yoghurt

Doughnuts (makes about 15 pieces)

500g bread flour 75g sugar

5g salt

10g dry yeast 

1 egg

250g ice water

25g milk powder

75g butter

1L neutral oil (e.g. vegetable oil)

Crab Salad Filling

200g crab meat

45g mayonnaise

10g Dijon mustard

½ chilli, finely diced

20g shallots, peeled and finely diced 

Zest from ½ lemon*

Juice from ½ lemon 

5g dill, chopped

To Serves

Salmon roe

Chilli oil

Method

For the lettuce gazpacho, wash all ingredients and place in the blender. Blend for 1 minute till smooth. Pass through a fine sieve and chill in the fridge till ready to serve.

For the Doughnuts, mix dry ingredients together (flour, sugar, salt, yeast, milk powder) and add the water and egg, knead the dough with a dough hook or hands for 10 minutes or until the dough becomes stretchable without breaking. Then, mix in the softened butter.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rest till it doubles in size (about 45-60 mins).

Knock back the dough by giving it a gentle knead to remove the air and portion into 20g balls. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand to create a flattened sphere. Leave again in a covered container and lightly spray with cooking oil to avoid drying out. Let the dough rest till they double in size (about 20 minutes).

Add your neutral oil to a deep pan, filling it until the oil is about halfway up the sides of the pan. Heat the oil until the temperature reaches 160°C, then fry the balls for 4 minutes until they are golden brown on the outside and cooked in the middle. Place on a wire rack and allow to cool.

For the crab salad filling, you have the option to purchase and cook live crab or you can use a good quality tinned crab meat for this. If you purchase a live crab, you will need to cook and chill it before picking the meat and making the salad.

Mix mayonnaise with mustard and lemon juice.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Be careful not to break the crab too much as you mix (you want to retain its texture).

*You can microplane the lemon zest or finely chop it.

To assembly, cut into the doughnuts to make a slit and fill with the crab salad mix. Top with salmon roe. Divide soup into four serving bowls and drizzle with chilli oil. Enjoy whilst cold to beat the heat.